| Online Casino Campaign Revealed as Hoax | | 16 Apr 2006 | It comes as no surprise that last week a popular online casino's support campaign has been revealed as nothing more than an elaborate marketing hoax. Online casino player Carl Valentine made headlines in recent months after a bet forced him to promise to amputate a finger. However, the online casino campaign has been revealed as a marketing ploy attempting to attract increased web traffic.
The website, Save My Finger, received widespread publicity when Valentine appealed to players at online casino sites to help save his right finger. Save My Finger aimed to attract two million fans of online casino sites to the site by 18 April. 2006. Last week, the anonymous brain behind the marketing scheme referred to it as a “viral marketing experiment.” The online casino's webmaster also revealed that the intention of the website was to do an experiment with Viral Marketing. The success of the experiment exceeded expectations, proving the point that it is possible to open up a website and to receive high traffic volumes within days.
Since the launch of Save My Finger on 12 December, 2005, a total of 1.601.255 fans of online casino sites have frequented the site. However, while the site’s creator has dismissed the Valentine scheme as simply a “funny story”, others have pointed out that there is nothing funny about manipulating the sympathy and good will of online casino fans. |
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